Alisha King isn’t afraid of intimacy, or so she manages to convince herself. After all, she experiences intimacy in a myriad of ways, from viewing the world behind the lens of her camera to a frenzied romp with her favorite vibrator. Focused on her upcoming photography show and finding the perfect subject, suddenly there he is, watching her watching him from across the courtyard of their apartment block.

The jolt through her system is instant, a familiarity that makes no sense. She knows him, yet she doesn’t. And trading the safety of her camera for up close and personal with the yummy Doctor Hanson Powers promises to lend a whole new level of intimacy to her photography.

When his sexy neighbor asks to photograph him, Hanson is by turns amused and intrigued. He isn’t interested in being a photo subject, yet he is curious to know how Alisha will go in the barter system. A blow job? More?

Turns out the thing that scares Alisha the most is emotional intimacy. So they start with the sex and more forward from there.

Dirty Xcerpt

She caught her breath. Was she so transparent? He wasn’t supposed to anticipate her moves in advance. He was supposed to be surprised. Intrigued. Caught unawares. That’s how she captured the essence of a subject. Already Hanson was proving more of a challenge than she had anticipated.

“Do you enjoy being seduced?”

“I’ve never been seduced by a camera before.”

“I promise I’ll be gentle. Turn around. Stand here.” She gestured to the French doors leading to the balcony. He did as she asked. Already she could see the light was magic.

She reached around and in a deliberately intimate move unbuttoned his shirt, conscious of her hands brushing the warm skin of his chest and abs. She pulled his shirt tail free and tugged the fabric off one shoulder, draping it so an intriguing play of skin and muscle was revealed. “Place your hands on the doorframe. Flex your muscles. That’s it!” She plopped the cowboy hat on his head and adjusted the brim. “Tilt your head to the left. Just a bit. Perfect! Don’t move!”

She adjusted the light to enhance the rope-like shadows exaggerated in the slope of his neck and shoulder, the tensing of his muscles. She picked up her camera and started to shoot, moving from side to side, assessing shadow and light, clicking away, getting the ghostly shadow of the building across the courtyard just perfect, light and dark.

“Okay! You can relax now.” She changed lenses before she moved the light.

Hanson proved to be an inspiring model. He happily sprawled on the bed, unzipped jeans revealing that intriguing wedge of skin, so blatantly masculine. He took to the blindfold with a wicked chuckle, as if he’d been born for this, and didn’t flinch when she sprayed his chest so beads of water clung to his skin, as if he’d just had a sweaty romp in bed.

He obligingly shucked the jeans when asked and rolled onto his stomach so she could position a wedge of silk across his tremendous ass, and slid the rose down his spine to his waist.

When prompted, he rolled back onto his back, the silk protecting his modesty, the blindfold still in place. Provocatively she picked up a cube of ice, cold on her fingertips. He smiled when she she outlined his lips, caught a drip with his tongue. Then she left the camera on its tripod, and picked up the remote shutter.

Suddenly, not even sure how it happened, she found herself in the photo shoot with him.

She hadn’t planned it that way. Had no intention of sitting behind him with her bare legs wrapped around his torso, feeding him the ice cube as it melted and dripped down his jaw.

Still blindfolded, he reached up and stroked the side of her face. When he tousled her hair her scalp tingled, stimulated by the pads of his fingers. Her body was on fire, singed at every juncture it met his.

He was hard and hot. Her clit pulsed with the promise of further treats as her breasts brushed his back, a direct hit to her burning core. He was breathing hard. The silk across his hips formed a tent more erotic than if he was naked. His hand found hers, played with her palm, turned it into an erogenous zone she hadn’t known existed as she writhed beneath him. His mouth hit her palm, lips hot, tongue chilled from the ice. She moaned. The photo shoot was forgotten, the remote shutter lost in their tangle of silk and limbs as they found their way to each other.

Alisha skimmed out of her dress and underwear. Hanson lost the blindfold, his heavy-lidded gaze intent on her body. She couldn’t move. No man had ever looked at her that way. Assessing. Admiring. Lust-filled.

He picked up the rose, played it across her nipples, through the valley between her breasts, lower still to ring her navel, then tease her mons.

Her legs parted slightly. Her breath increased in anticipation, as her pulse raced. The rose teased her inner thigh, from her knee to her pubes and back. Slowly. Torturously.

It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. She heard a whimper and realized it came from her. How was that even possible? She didn’t enjoy sex with men. She had to turn this back, take control.

Which she did. Slowly and deliberately she took the rose away, and edged up onto her knees while Hanson lay in a tangle of silk watching her. That knowing half-smile goaded her. He knew she wanted him.

She reached behind a pillow and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Hanson continued to watch in heavy-lidded silence as she cuffed his wrists to the headboard. “I hope you know where the keys are.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I have no intention of keeping you here all night.”

“We’ll see.”

Kathleen Lawless’s earliest memories are of wanting to be a writer. To create stories that would touch the lives of others who love to read the way she does.

“I’m working on my 24th novel and it’s amazing to see the changes in traditional publishing, including ebooks and the opportunities writers have to interact with their readers.” She enjoys pushing the boundaries of traditional romance into erotic romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction and stories for young adults.

She also knows firsthand about happy endings. “Can you believe I wrote A HARD MAN TO LOVE with a hero named Steele, years before I met my own hero named Steel? His proposal to me on a remote island in the Caribbean was more romantic than anything I could have written about.”

Her books have garnered rave reviews and numerous awards including Romantic Times K.I.S.S., a Scarlett Letter, and a Golden Quill.

Don’t forget to sign up for Kathleen’s newsletter to receive a free download of THE PLEASURE CLUB. www.kathleenlawless.com